TX 

16 

56 


IC-NRLF. 


SB    32 


CD 
O 
LO 

GO 


Eleventh  Series,  No.  1  September  13,  1919 


®eacfjer£  College  Bulletin 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education 
Some  Problems  and  Proposals 

By  DAVID  SNEDDEN,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  Education,  Teachers  College 
Columbia  University 


Published  by 

QDeacftet*  College,  Columbia 

525  West  I20th  Street 
New  York  City 


Teachers  College  Bulletin 

Published  fortnightly  from  September  to  May,  inclusive.  Entered  as  second-class  matter, 
January  15,  1910,  at  the  Post  Office,  New  York,  N.  Y.,  under  Act  of  August  24,  1912.  Ac- 
ceptance for  mailing  at  special  rate  of  postage  provided  for  in  Section  1103,  Act  ot  October 
3,  1917,  authorized. 


Vocational  Homemaking  Education 
Some  Problems  and  Proposals 


By  DAVID  SNEDDEN,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  Education,  Teachers  College 
Columbia  University 


Published  by 

College,  Columbia 

525  West  1 20th  Street 
New  York  City 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I.  Problems  for  Consideration 3 

II.  What  Are  Homes? 6 

III.  What  Is  the  Vocation  of  Homemaker? 8 

IV.  Sociological  Scope  and  Standards  of  the  Homemaking 

Vocations n 

V.  The  "Total   Problem"  of  Vocational   Education   for 

Homemaking      13 

VI.  The  "Case  Method"  of  Study      16 

VII.  Some  General  Principles 20 

VIII.  Application  of  These  General   Principles  to  Home- 
making  Education 25 

IX.  The  "Project  Method"  of  Teaching  Homemaking    .    .  26 

X.  Federal  Board's  Bulletin  No.  28 30 

XI.  Household  Arts  as  Liberal  Education 33 


Copyright,  1919,  by  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University 


VOCATIONAL  HOMEMAKING  EDUCATION: 
SOME  PROBLEMS  AND  PROPOSALS* 

The  education  of  women  and  girls  for  the  homemaking  voca- 
tions has  evolved  to  a  point  where  many  specific  problems  can 
be  diagnosed,  (it  is  the  purpose  of  this  bulletin  to  state  a  few  of 
these  problems,  to  suggest  some  methods  for  their  further  study, 
and  to  submit  certain  tentative  proposals  for  criticisms  As  far 
as  practicable,  the  methods  employed  will  be  those  being  devel- 
oped in  educational  sociology,  namely,  to  base  all  proposed  aims 
of  education  upon  an  analysis  and  evaluation  of  these  needs  of 
social  groups  to  be  realized  in  and  through  education,  school  and 
non-school,  ^he  standards  will  be  those  increasingly  accepted 
in  the  general  theory  of  vocational  education.  The  bulletin  is 
designed  primarily  for  educators  engaged  in  research  in  the 
fields  of  homemaking  and  household  arts  education,  or  in  admin- 
istering state  and  national  legislation  intended  to  promote  such 
education. 

I.   PROBLEMS  FOR  CONSIDERATION 

1.  Do  we  possess  as  yet  any  definitions  of  the  homemaking 
vocations  sufficiently  specific  and  concrete  to  serve  as  founda- 
tions for  the  formulation  of  satisfactory  programs  of  instruction 
and  training  for  those  vocations?     Where  can  they  be  found? 
(It  is  obvious  that  definitions  expressed  only  in  vague  general 
terms  render  very  poor  service.) 

2.  Back  of  definitions  of  homemaking,  do  we  as  yet  possess 
analyses   and   classifications   of   homes   sufficiently   concrete   to 
enable  us  to  determine  what  are,  for  given  social  groups  and 
conditions,   optimum   degrees   of   efficiency   to   be   expected   of 
homemakers?     (For  example,  the  criticism  is  often  heard  that 

*  In  the.  preparation  of  this  paper,  the  writer  has  availed  himself  constantly  of 
the  suggestions  and  criticism  of  students,  colleagues,  and  others  too  numerous  to 
mention  by  name.  Thanks  are  due  them  all  for  their  patience  no  less  than  for 
their  courtesy. 

[3] 


415807 


existing  *  programs  'oFhqrhe  economics  education  are  based  on 
excessively  high  home  maintenance  standards  from  the  stand- 
point of  those  whom  they  are  to  serve — that  they  ignore  the 
$900— $1,200  income  class  home,  in  spite  of  its  prevalence.)  .Where 
can  such  analyses  be  found£> 

3.  Have  we  as  yet  any  sufficient  survey  of  the  effectiveness  of 
the  non-school  vocational  education  for  homemaking  which  now 
prevails  (and  always  has  prevailed,  possibly  in  different  forms) 
in  various  social  groups  or  income  levels?    Where  can  the  results 
of  such  surveys  be  found?     (It  is  alleged  that  programs  of  basic 
home  economics  education  now  take  no  adequate  account  of 
the  effectiveness  of  non-school  education,  and  therefore  fail  to 
utilize  its  results,  cooperatively  or  as  basis  of  correlation.)    What, 
for  specified  groups  or  conditions,  are  the  contributions  of  such 
education  to  (a)  ideals  and  appreciations,  (b)  technical  knowl- 
edge, and  (c)  skills,  at  age  levels  1-12,  12-15,  I5~i8  for  non-wage- 
earners  or  school   attendants,    (d)    15-18   for  wage-earners   or 
school  attendants,  (e)  18-22  for  home  "boarders,"  (/)  18-22  for 
home  assistants,  (g)  22-30  for  young  married  women,  etc.? 

4.  Is  it  practicable  to  distinguish  in  the  actual  exercise  of  the 
homemaking  vocation  by  given  individuals  the  factors,  respec- 
tively, of  "skills,"  forms  of  "related  technical  knowledge,"  and 
forms  of  "related  hygienic,  social,  and  cultural  knowledge  (and 
ideals)"  in  such  a  way  as  to  deduce  therefrom  the  best  parts 
which  should  be  played  respectively  by  home  apprenticeship, 
school  education,  and  undirected  experience,  in  the  total  edu- 
cative processes  of  producing  vocational  competency?     (Home 
economics  classes  and  courses  have  heretofore  restricted  them- 
selves largely  to  technical  instruction;    they  seem  to  have  done 
little  to  produce  the  two  classes  of  skills  essential  in  homemaking 
— manipulative  and  managerial;    and  both  their  methods  and 
results  have  been  freely  criticised  as  "impractical,"  "over-tech- 
nical," "excessively  wedded  to  book  and  laboratory.")     Under 
what  conditions  can  technical  instruction  alone  function  in  voca- 
tional competency — (a)  as  instruction  unconnected  with  home 
experience  for  girls  12-16  under  conditions  of  home  apprentice- 
ship, (b)  as  instruction  uncorrelated  with  home  experience  on 
part  of  girls  16-20,  (c)  as  extension  instruction  to  housewives? 
Does  Bulletin  28  of  the  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education 

[4] 


definitely  provide  for  "training"?  How  can  training  in  'home- 
making  arts"  be  given?  Have  we  as  yet  any  satisfactory  analyses 
of  "training"  for  homemaking  at  ages  12-14,  14~16,  16-20, 
before  marriage,  after  marriage? 

5.  In  general  it  is  agreed  that  the  best  time  for  vocational 
education   is  just   prior   to   the   individual's   undertaking   "full 
responsibility"  work  as  operative  or  manager  in  the  vocation 
itself.,    When  do  the  following  persons  usually  undertake  "full" 
or  "part"  responsibility  work:    farmers'  daughters  not  leaving 
home  until  married;    domestic  servants;    women,  wage-earners 
from    16—23,   then    marrying  and   discontinuing  outside  work; 
home-staying  daughters?    How  far  are  girls  exceptions  to  above 
principle  by  virtue  of  constant  living  in  homes?     How  far  do 
girls  at  14-16  possess  active  motives  for  entry  upon  vocational 
-homemaking?   How  far  can  results  of  homemaking  instruction  or 
training  keep  in  "cold  storage"  (without  application),  e.g.,  in  cases 
of  girls  16-22  working  for  wages,  but  living  at  home?    How  far  can 
"instincts"  for  homemaking  contribute  to  expected  proficiencies 
— along  food  lines,  clothing,  sick-nursing,  child  care,  management? 
Which  of  these  problems  have  been  well  investigated? 

6.  To  what  extent  have  aims,  methods,  and  administrative 
organization  of  home  economics  education  taken  shape  under 
limitations  imposed  by  conditions  of  other  forms  of  education? 
Why  do  we  think  of  it  chiefly  as  related  to  ages  14-18  in  high 
schools?    As  parallel  to  liberal  arts  courses?    As  dependent  upon 
"laboratories"?    As  yielding  almost  no  forms  of  cooperation  with 
homes?     How  can  we  provide  for  investigation  of  problems  of 
specific  aim  and  method  on  assumption  of  "optimum"  conditions? 

7.  What  is  the  "case"  method  of  study?    Is  it  practicable  to 
procure,  within  reasonable  limits  of  precision,  type  "cases"  of 
home  practice,  preparation  for  home  practice,  needs  of  prepara- 
tory training,  present  schemes  of  school  preparation,  and  the 
like,  and  tentatively  to  analyze  and  evaluate  these? 

8.  What  are   principles  of  vocational   education   in   general 
which  are  capable  of  application  in  homemaking? 

9.  What  is  the  "home  project  method"  of  vocational  home- 
making? 

10.  Are  the  suggestions  of  Bulletin  28  conclusive? 

11.  What  is  the  place  of  household  arts  in  liberal  education? 

(si 


.-.:  ••:.•:-...<••  ,.V 

II.   WHAT  ARE  HOMES? 

The  "home"  is  a  very  much  generalized  conception.  Every 
person  can  in  a  measure  appreciate,  even  visualise,  a  home  or 
homes.  But  we  still  possess  no  adequate  analysis  of  the  essential 
characteristics  and  functionings  of  homes  of  various  kinds.  Be- 
cause of  the  indeterminateness  of  prevailing  "job  analyses"  of 
homemaking  and  the  hardly  less  vague  standards  of  functioning 
of  the  home  as  a!  social  agency,  most  current  proposals  and  prac- 
tices toward  education  for  homemaking  exhibit  endless  evi- 
dences of  artificialty  and  impracticality.J) 

1.  In  the  most  universal  sense,  the  home  is  obviously  a  place 
for  the  rest  and  recreation  of  adults.     It  is  manifestly  also  a 
workshop  for  the  elaboration  of  consumable  goods — foods,  clotty- 
ing,  beds,  social  intercourse,  worship,  education.     .In  its  pro- 
founder  aspects  it  is  a  means  for  the  nurture  of  children.    These 
functions  are  interdependent,  interlocked;    but,  for  any  given 
type  of  home,  which  are  more  fundamental,  more  socially  essen- 
tial, than  others?    We  greatly  need  concrete  analyses  of  these 
problems  along  the  lines  of  the  classifications  suggested  below. 

2.  It  is,  indeed,  highly  desirable  that  we  should  have  func- 
tional analyses  of  various  types  of  "homes."     In  the  modern 
world    there    are    many    specialized    agencies    which    function, 
temporarily  or  permanently,  as  homes  for  adults  engaged  in 
vocational  pursuits — barracks,  cantonments,  ships,  hotels,  bache- 
lors' cabins,  dormitories,  hotels,  Pullman  cars.    There  are  hive- 
like  homes  for  children  more  or  less  abnormally  situated — asy- 
lums, boarding-school  dormitories,  institutional  cottages.   Homes 
for  monogamous  families  also  exist  in  several  species,  from  the 
hotel  apartment  and  housekeeping  apartment,  the  urban  "row" 
or  semi-detached  house,  Ao  the  detached  urban  dwelling,  and  the 
farm  homestead. 

3.  If  we  assume  that,  sociologically  considered,  the  primary 
function  of  the  "home"  is  to  contribute  to  the  rearing  of  chil- 
dren,  then   the  various  species  of   "family"   homes  should   be 
divided  into  a  number  of  varieties  according  to  scope  of  their 
work,  and  the  means  wherewith  it  is  to  be  done.    The  following 
at  least  are  some  of  the  types  that  require  extended  analysis  (the 
words  "normal  number  of  children"  denote  expectancy  of  from 

[61 


four  to  six  children  by  time  mother  is  at  age  of  forty) :  (a)  tene- 
ment home,  no  servant  help;  normal  number  of  children;  annual 
income  less  than  $800  (1900-1914  prices) ;  (b)  same,  but  income 
$8oo-$i2OO;  (c)  same,  except  apartment  with  hot-water  and  heat, 
and  income  $I2OO-$2OOO;  (d)  same,  income  $2OOO-$3OOO;  (e) 
apartment  home,  one  servant,  subnormal  number  of  children,  in- 
come $25OO-$4OOo;  (/)  same,  subnormal  number  of  children  (one), 
no  servant,  income  under  $1200;  (g)  apartment,  subnormal  num- 
ber of  children  (two),  one  servant,  income  $2OOO-$4OOO ;  (h)  de- 
tached urban  or  suburban  house,  no  servant,  normal  number  of 
children,  income  under  $1000;  (i)  same,  but  subnormal  number 
of  children,  income  under  $1000;  (j)  same  as  (h),  but  income 
$1000-$ 1 500;  (k)  same,  income  $I5OO-$25OO;  (/)  same,  except 
one  servant,  and  income  $2OOO-$4ooo;  (m)  detached  urban  or 
suburban  house,  subnormal  number  of  children  (one  or  two), 
no  servant,  income  $I2OO-$2OOO;  (ri)  detached  house,  normal 
or  subnormal  number  of  children,  three  or  more  servants,  in- 
come $7ooo-$2O,ooo;  (o)  detached  farm  home,  excess  number 
of  children,  net  income  (money  and  kind)  under  $700,  colored; 
(p)  same,  white;  (q)  same,  white,  but  net  income  $750— $1100; 
(r)  farm  home,  normal  number  of  children,  no  servant,  net  in- 
come $8oo-$iooo;  (s)  same,  net  income,  $iooo-$i5OO,  irregular 
help;  (/)  farm  home,  normal  number  of  children,  two  or  more 
servants,  income  $3000-$  10,000. 

4.  It   is   also   desirable   that   homes   should   be   classified   in 
terms  of  the  ideals  or  standards  toward  which  they  aspire,  as 
well  as  the  conditions  they  must  meet.   (What  are  the  "standards 
of  living,"  or  perhaps  better,  the  standards  of  comfort,  toward 
which  are  striving:    (a)  The  American-born  manual  working- 
man's   family?      (b)    The   American-born    land-owning   general 
farmer?    (c)  The  American-born  well-educated  professional  man 
or  commercial  worker?     (d)  The  colored  tenant  farmer  in  the 
South?  r(e)  The  recent  Italian  immigrant,  manual  laborer  in 
city?") Sociological  research  is  needed  to  define  prevailing  types, 
to  evaluate  their  persistent  and  their  "fluid"  ideals.N 

5.  Of  the  above  types,  which  are  "modal" — that  is,  statisti- 
cally most  numerous — from  the  standpoint  of  the  vocational 
education  of  prospective  homemakers?    Which  are  most  preva- 
lent, or  expected  to  be  most  prevalent,  in  given  communities? 

[71 


Into  which  types  are  the  girls  whose  abilities  and  favoring  home 
circumstances  enable  them  to  "go  through"  high  school  likely  to 
fit?  Into  which  types  are  the  girls  of  a  manufacturing  city,  who 
leave  school  at  14-16,  likely  to  fit?  What  are  the  types  likely  to 
be  filled  by  daughters  of  poor  "renting"  farmers?  Are  we  to 
expect  the  flat  or  apartment  home  to  replace  the  detached  house 
in  cities?  in  suburbs?  Are  home  economics  teachers  expected 
to  prognosticate  the  future  availability  of  servant  help — and  for 
several  income  classes  of  homes  considered  separately?  The 
probable  extension  of  the  apartment  or  flat  type  of  dwelling? 
The  possible  evolution  of  cooperative  housekeeping?  Develop- 
ment of  agencies  for  the  cooperative  or  delegated  care  of  small 
children?  Future  possibilities  of  "boarding"  life  in  nurture  of 
children?  Cooperation  of  the  father,  on  a  short  wage-earner's 
day,  in  duties  of  twenty-four-hour  day  homemaking?  Probable 
future  size  of  family  in  different  social  groups? 

6.  It  is  suggested  that  in  class  work,  where  not  otherwise 
specified,  the  term  "home"  should  imply  these  conditions:  de- 
tached urban  house,  no  servant,  from  four  to  six  children,  $900- 
$1500  income  standard,  American  traditions.  From  this,  as  a 
point  of  departure,  variants  could  be  described.  In  many  cities 
the  "cold  water"  (no  heat  supplied),  "walk  up"  three-to-five-room 
flat  for  workingman's  families  is  becoming  very  common;  it 
means  normal  number  of  children  at  least,  no  servants,  income 
$700-$! ooo.  Also  the  separate  land-owner's  farm  home  is  very 
prevalent. 

III.  WHAT  Is  THE  VOCATION  OF  HOMEMAKER? 

Homemaking  a  Composite  Vocation:  It  is  obvious  that  the 
vocation  of  homemaker  is  composite  to  an  extent  characteristic 
of  only  a  very  few  other  occupations.  This  remains  true,  not- 
withstanding the  extent  to  which  certain  functions  have  in 
America  been  removed  from  the  homes — such  as  weaving,  teach- 
ing, food  preservation,  gardening,  and,  now,  baking,  brewing, 
and  garment-making.  Compositeness  of  vocation  is  ordinarily  a 
sign  of  primitiveness.  When  human  beings  live  under  primitive, 
pioneering,  or  dispersed  conditions,  there  is  relatively  little  sub- 
division of  labor  and  exchange  of  commodities.  Every  primi- 

18] 


tive  hunter,  fisherman,  tiller  of  -the  soil,  warrior,  teacher,  and 
housewife  is  in  large  measure  and  of  necessity  a  jack-of -all-trades. 
The  home  retains  this  character  long  after  it  has  largely  dis- 
appeared in  manufacture,  transportation  and  commerce,  because 
the  family  is  the  most  universal  unit  of  consumption  and  especially 
of  the  productive  processes  that  just  precede  or  are  intimately 
associated  with  consumption.  Sociologically  speaking,  we  can 
again  affirm  that  children  are  the  cause  of  the  present  composite- 
ness  of  the  homemakers  activities.  ^IL  children  could  be  as 
effectively  reared  in  barracks,  hotels,  or  asylums  as  adults  can 
live  and  carry  on  consuming  activities  in  these  elaborate  organiza- 
tions of  specialized  service,  then  we  should  speedily  see  the  end 
of  the  highly  localized  home. 

Organization  and  specialization  of  service  lead  to  depth  of 
knowledge,  refinement  of  skill,  and  intricacy  of  managerial 
relations.  The  small  "general"  farmer,  the  country  store-keeper, 
the  teacher  in  a  small  high  school,  the  village  mechanic,  the 
country  doctor,  like  the  housewife,  must  always  experience  the 
trials  of  realizing  themselves  less  competent  in  the  special  arts, 
which  they  must  attempt,  than  the  specialists.  Utopian  sugges- 
tions that  "homemaking"  is  (or  ought  to  be  regarded  as)  a 
"profession"  render  no  service  in  mitigating  the  hard  reality  that 
for  the  great  majority  it  must  long  continue  a  composite  of  ill- 
defined  and  imperfectly  standardized  arts. 

The  first  step  in  the  process  of  defining  the  vocation  of  home- 
maker  is  that  of  segregating  for  detailed  consideration  some 
^  fairly  common  and  constant  types  of  home.  The  second  is  to 
analyze,  describe,  and,  perhaps,  evaluate  the  various  prevailing 
forms  of  skill,  knowledge,  appreciation,  and  ideal  now  found 
among  those  of  the  practitioners  of  this  type  of  homemaking  who 
would  be  judged  to  be  slightly  above  the  average  by  persons 
possessed  of  critical  and  common-sense  judgment. 

Analysis  of  Type  Homemaking  Vocation:  Let  us  assume  as  the 
type  to  be  considered  homemakers  in  detached  village  or  urban 
houses,  no  servants,  family  budget,  $iooo-$i2oo  per  year, 
American  ancestry,  normal  number  of  children  (two  or  three  at 
ages  assumed  for  mothers — 28-34),  mothers  of  elementary 
school  general  education,  no  school  education  in  homemaking. 
Call  this  type  M.  Taking  one  hundred  of  these  at  random,  we 

[9] 


can  for  convenience  classify  twenty  as  A  grade  (excellent),  thirty 
as  B  grade  (good),  thirty  as  C  grade  (fair),  and  twenty  as  D 
grade  (poor).  For  purposes  of  determining  prevailing  require- 
ments of  the  vocation  we  can  confine  ourselves  to  the  B  grade. 
The  vocational  activities  of  these  B  grade  homemakers  can 
readily  be  classified  under  such  major  and  minor  heads  as  those 
given  in  the  following  table;  and  a  consensus  of  competent  critics 
could  assign  to  these  various  groups  of  activities,  for  the  type  of 
homemaker  under  consideration,  crude  measures  of  their  relative 
importance  (weightings)  along  the  lines  tentatively  suggested  by 
the  figures  here  arbitrarily  assigned  (it  is  assumed  that  total 
optimum  competency  would  be  rated  at  10,000  units;  and  that 
optimum  competency  in  any  one  division  would  be  rated  as  given ; 
and  that  individual  MBx  might  be  rated  as  shown): 

TABLE  I 
CLASSIFICATION  AND  RATING  OF  ACTIVITIES  OF  TYPE  M  HOMEMAKER 

Optimum  Rating  of 

Activity  Group  (Majors)                           Standards  Individual 

for  Type  M  MBx 

1.  Foods  (buying,  preparation,  serving) 3000  2000 

2.  Clothing  (buying,  up-keep,  making) 1500  1200 

3.  Household  care  and  up-keep  (beds,  cleaning, 

etc.) 1000  900 

4.  Laundry r 500  400 

5.  Care  of  children    3000  1500 

Activity  Group  (Minors) 

6.  Accounting 300  \  10 

7.  Sick  nursing 300  250 

8.  Housing  and  furnishing 100  50 

9.  Adult  sociability 150  150 

10.   Garden  and  yard 150  100 

Detailed  Analysis  Required:  But  it  is  clear  that  such  an  analysis 
as  that  given  above  is  too  crude  and  general  to  serve  for  practical 
guidance.  For  one  thing,  it  makes  no  distinctions  between  skills 
and  related  technical  (or  artistic  and  scientific)  knowledge.  Some 
homemakers  are  strong  in  certain  skills  acquired  purely  on  the 
basis  of  imitation  and  "trial  and  success"  methods  under  compe- 
tent direction;  and  weak  in  technical  knowledge.  Some  have 

[10] 


excellent  technical  knowledge  but  inferior  skills.  Possibly  a  third 
type  of  power  (or  appreciation)  should  also  be  distinguished, 
namely,  social  insight,  or,  more  adequately,  physical,  social,  and 
cultural  insight.  It  is  also  probable  that  distinctions  should  be 
made  between  manipulative  and  managerial  skills. 

Furthermore,  any  adequate  analysis  must  distinguish,  weight, 
and  evaluate  numerous  concrete  subdivisions  in  the  above 
scheme.  "Skills"  in  preparing  foods  are  not  general,  but  often 
very  concrete  and  specific.  Skill  in  bread-making  may  coexist 
with  lack  of  it  in  beefsteak  broiling.  Competency  in  making 
certain  articles  of  clothing  may  be  found  alongside  of  low  ideals 
of  up-keep. 

Let  it  be  repeated  that  the  first  object  of  the  analysis  and 
evaluation  suggested  above  is  to  ascertain  what  powers  and 
capacities  are  now  prevailingly  found  among  homemakers  of 
slightly  more  than  average  ability  as  found  in  a  certain  type  or 
class.  Such  analysis  should  normally  precede  attempts  to  deter- 
mine what  powers  and  capacities  the  next  generation  of  home- 
makers  of  similar  groups  should  possess  as  a  result  of  purposive 
vocational  education.  In  much  of  current  literature  on  the  aims 
of  home  economics  confusion  exists  because  aspirations  are  not 
presented  separately  from  diagnoses  of  existing  conditions;  and 
also  because  in  diagnoses  various  types  and  grades  of  homemakers 
are  jumbled.  (The  problem  of  vocational  education  for  the  girl 
or  woman  whcTin  all  probability  will  direct  the  labor  of  two  or 
more  servants  will  undoubtedly  be  found  to  be  different  in  many 
essential  respects  from  that  of  the  girl  or  woman  who  is  almost 
certainly  destined  to  carry  the  full  load  of  homemaking  by  her- 
self. No  less  important  at  certain  points  are  distinctions  between 
rural  and  urban  homes,  and  between  homes  in  apartments  and 
homes  in  detached  or  semi-detached  houses.  Scientific  study  is 
certain  to  reveal  other  classifications  of  importance,  based, 
perhaps,  upon  climatic,  occupational,  and  other  considerations. 

IV.  SOCIOLOGICAL  SCOPE  AND  STANDARDS  OF  THE 
HOMEMAKING  VOCATIONS 

i.  There  are  in  the  United  States  some  16,000,000  women, 
chiefly  married  and  widowed,  whose  principal  vocation  is  home- 

[ii] 


making.  Of  these  probably  90  per  cent  are  unable  to  divide 
work  or  responsibility  with  co-laborers;  hence  they  must  carry  on 
all  phases  of  homemaking  work  by  themselves — conspicuously 
the  procuring,  preparing,  and  serving  of  food,  the  making  and 
up-keep  of  clothing,  laundry  work,  house  care,  care  of  children,  etc. 
For  women  of  this  class,  homemaking,  therefore,  at  least  among 
white  people,  presents  relatively  few  variable  features,  as  between 
East  and  West,  North  and  South.  Hence,  homemaking  is  the 
most  numerously  followed  of  all  vocations.  Next  to  it,  in  point 
of  numbers,  is  "farming."  But  "farming"  includes  many  very 
unlike  vocations,  from  cranberry,  orange,  asparagus,  cotton  or 
sheep  growing  as  specialties  to  dairy,  grain,  market  garden  or 
"general"  farming. 

Domestic  service  for  hire,  or  favor — specialized  and  unspe- 
cialized — may  be  classified  here  as  "assistant  homemaking." 

2.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  sociologist  the  central  fact  in 
homemaking  is  the  rearing  of  children.    The  monogamous  mar- 
riage and  the  home  have  evolved  side  by  side,  most  conspicuously 
in  the  north  temperate  zone,  probably  in  chief  measure  because 
of  their  suitability  to  the  rearing  of  the  children — to  the  making 
out  of  children  the  kind  of  men  and  women  who  could  best 
cooperate  in  producing  and  sustaining  the  valuable  elements  in 
civilization.  /All  adults  must,  of  course,  have  places  of  temporary 
or  permanent  abode ;  but  the  beginnings  of  the  most  realistic  home 
are  laid  when  a  man  and  woman  form  a  partnership  in  marriage 
and  soon  face  their  responsibility  of  rearing  through  the  "pro- 
longed infancy"  the  children  born  of  the  union. 

3.  Endless  conventions,  customs,  and  laws  have  been  evolved 
to  perpetuate  and  to  improve  the  home  as  a  social  institution. 
Most  conspicuous  is  the  division  of  labor  between  husband  and 
wife.    The  prevailing  American  standard,  which  expresses  in 
fullest  development  the  standards  aspired  to  in  other  countries, 
requires  that  the  husband  shall  be  the  "money  getter"  of  the 
family — that  he  shall  produce  the  marketable  goods  (or  services) 
wherewith  goods  for  the  home  can  be  purchased.     The  wife  is 
expected  to  do  the  "elaborative"  or  preparatory  work  required  in 
the  home  to  make  goods  purchased  in  more  or  less  raw  form 
suitable  for  immediate  consumption.  To  the  mother  falls  the 
prolonged  and  sustaining  care  of  children,  especially  when  small. 

[12] 


To  the  father  falls  induction  of  boys,  as  they  mature,  into  pro- 
ductive service.  To  the  mother  falls  the  vocational  "by-educa- 
tion" of  the  girls. 

a.  Space  need  not  be  taken  here  to  elaborate  the  biological 
concomitants  of  these  sex  differentiations  of  work,  attitude,  and 
responsibility.     Doubtless  the  respective  "natures"  of  men  and 
women  have  become  somewhat  biologically  differentiated  toward 
the  best  rearing,  as  well  as  toward  the  best  begetting  and  bearing 
of  children.    On  the  other  hand,  many  apparently  deeply  rooted 
differentiations  are  founded  only  in  the  social  inheritances  of 
customs,  conventions,  and  other  "social"  habits  and  traditions. 
These  last  can,  obviously,  be  much  more  readily  changed  than 
the  former. 

b.  A   secondary   function   of   the   home   is   to   reinforce   and 
develop  personality  and   community  of   interest  in   the  adult 
members  of  the  family  group.     For  these  it  gives  a  place  of  rest 
and    some    forms   of   recreation,    protection    from   invasion    of 
weather,  and  privacy  for  the  social  intercourse  valuable  to  the 
family  group. 

4.  From  the  sociological  standpoint,  therefore,  the  primary 
standards  of  good  homemaking  are  to  be  found,  first  in  the 
children  brought  to  appro vable  manhood  and  womanhood 
through  this  agency;  and,  second,  through  the  enrichment  of 
personality  (health,  sociability,  culture)  accomplished  for  its 
adult  members. 

a.  It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  each  age  brings  new  conditions 
to  assist  or  restrict  the  home  in  the  discharge  of  its  social  obliga- 
tions. Schools  take  over  certain  functions;  adults  resort  to  clubs 
for  sociability  and  other  recreation;  the  man's  workshop  is 
removed  to  a  distance,  so  that  he  loses  contact  with  adolescent 
boys ;  many  productive  operations  that  once  gave  variety  to  the 
work  of  the  wife  and  opportunities  to  share  work  with  children 
are  being  removed  from  the  home. 

V.   THE  "TOTAL  PROBLEM"  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 
FOR  HOMEMAKING 

One  great  mistake  has  frequently  been  made  in  constructing 
programs  or  curricula  of  vocational  education  in  that  teachers 

[13] 


and  administrators  have  proceeded  to  work  with  existing  limita- 
tions always  in  mind  from  the  outset.  This  procedure  is  funda- 
mentally unscientific.  Programs  and  curricula  should  first  be 
worked  out  on  the  assumption  of  optimum  conditions;  then  revi- 
sions, corrections,  reductions,  and  other  accommodations  should 
be  made  with  reference  to  known  and  defined  limitations  or 
other  modifying  conditions. 

For  example:  Assume  the  problem  before  us  is  that  of  pro- 
viding vocational  homemaking  education  for  certain  women  who 
are  usually  factory  hands  from  fifteen  years  of  age  to  marriage, 
who  commonly  marry  at  from  22  to  25,  whose  family  income  from 
marriage  to  forty-five  will  range  from  $1000  to  $1500  (the 
mother  not  being  a  wage-earner),  who  will  rear  from  four  to  six 
children,  and  who  will  live  in  small  urban  or  suburban  houses. 
It  is  desired  that  this  homemaking  education  shall  function  in 
reasonably  immediate  competency  when  first  children  are  born. 
Let  us  assume  that  we  are  working  in  a  manufacturing  city  with 
large  numbers  of  recent  immigrants. 

We  know  that  the  actual  situations  confronting  us  are  endlessly 
varied.  Some  of  the  girls  go  to  work  at  fourteen,  having -finished 
only  the  fifth  grade;  others  leave  after  going  half  way  through 
high  school.  Some  at  fifteen  have  been  well  trained  in  home 
craft  by  their  mothers,  some  possess  little  or  no  skill.  Some  have 
been  wise  "little  mothers"  and  know  much  about  the  care  of 
babies,  even  at  twelve  years  of  age;  but  most  of  them  will  have 
learned  nothing  of  child  care  by  the  time  their  own  first  baby 
arrives.  Some  of  them  will  approach  marriage  with  considerable 
appreciation  of  the  responsibilities  of  homemaking,  others  will 
rush  in  heedlessly.  If  a  good  day  vocational  school  of  home- 
making  were  available,  a  few  of  them  would  stop  work  and  attend 
it  for  one  or  three  months  in  preparation  for  their  new  vocation ; 
but  most  of  them  would  not.  If  well  advertised  evening  classes 
in  "short  units"  of  homemaking  were  available,  many  girls  would 
come  for  some  months,  but  their  interest  would  center  chiefly 
in  making  articles  of  personal  wear  or  adornment  or  in  cooking 
dishes  suitable  for  "parties";  but  a  few  would  do  genuinely  pro- 
ductive project  work  in  evening  classes. 

Confronted  by  this  heterogeneous  and  confused  situation,  how 
shall  we  proceed  to  devise  curricula?  Efficient  procedure  cer- 

[14] 


tainly  requires  that  we  first  determine  and  document  in  detail 
curricula  and  programs  on  the  assumption  of  clear-cut  and 
optimum  conditions. 

1 .  We  can  assume  as  basal  these  factors :    (a)  All  the  girls  and 
women  we  are  to  deal  with  are  wage-earners  from  14-17  to  21-25. 
(6)  All  will  marry,  and  have  families,     (c)  All  will  be  wives  of 
workingmen,  having  family  incomes  of  $900-$!  500.     (d)   It  is 
desirable  that  all  families  shall  live  in  accordance  with  "good" 
American  standards. 

2.  For   the   purposes   of   getting   our   "total"   or   "complete" 
curriculum  defined  we  can  assume  the  existence  of  these  condi- 
tions:   (a)  Women  engaged  to  be  married  and  eager  to  qualify 
for  the  vocation  of  homemaking.     (&)  The  prior  experience  or 
home  training  of  these  women  is  so  slight  and  ineffective  as  to  be 
negligible,     (c)  The  woman  free  to  give  three  or  six  months  as 
may  be  required  to  "full  time"  (eight  hours  daily)  for  this  voca- 
tional education,     (d)  The  woman  living  with  her  parents  in  a 
small  home  which  can  be  used  in  any  and  all  ways  as  a  "productive 
shop"  for  educational  practice  in  homemaking.     (e)  The  woman 
living  in  the  midst  of  neighbors  among  whom  she  can  find  oppor- 
tunities to  care  for  sick  or  to  assume  charge  of  infants  when  work 
of  this  character  becomes  essential  to  her  program.     (/)  The 
school  so  staffed  and  equipped  as  to  give  all  needed  individual 
instruction,    supervision    of    home    projects,    laboratory    work, 
related  reading,  etc. 

In  the  light  of  these  conditions  we  produce  curricula,  programs, 
courses,  projects,  etc.,  having  paid  due  regard  to  the  various 
kinds  of  educational  products  to  be  produced — skills,  applicable 
knowledge,  ideals,  managerial  abilities,  appreciations,  etc. 
Overzealous  or  "theoretical"  teachers  might  well  consider  warn- 
ings, and  queries  at  this  point:  (a)  We  are  not  expected  to  train 
these  young  women  for  a  "profession."  (b)  In  view  of  the 
multiplicity  of  operations  involved  in  homemaking,  we  are  not 
expected  to  train  these  young  women  to  be  as  good  cooks  as 
hotel  chefs,  as  good  nurses  as  hospital  graduates,  as  good  seam- 
stresses as  those  working  for  wages,  or  as  good  teachers  of  little 
children  as  kindergartners.  Overambitious  standards  or  ideals 
here  defeat  their  own  aims,  (c)  What  additions  to  their  powers 
and  capacities  can  we  expect  these  people  to  make  during,  say, 


the  first  five  years  of  married  life,  as  the  burdens  of  homemaking 
rapidly  increase?  (d)  (Remember,  always,  that  technical  knowl- 
edge not  built  on  experience  is  apt  to  be  a  useless  possession, 
whereas  skill,  even  if  unaccompanied  by  technical  knowledge, 
has  a  large  place  in  the  world.  The  ideal,  of  course,  is  skills, 
manual  and  managerial,  illumined  by  technical  knowledge  and 
social  insight. 

3.  Having  made  our  curricula  and  programs  for  the  situation 
described  above,  we  can  then  proceed  to  make  adaptations  and 
adjustments  of  it  for  situations  like  these: 

a.  Where  young  women  have  had  a  substantial  apprentice- 
ship in  their  own  homes. 

b.  Where  it  is  not  practicable  to  reach  young  women,  but  it  is 
practicable  to  provide  two  to  six  hours  weekly  of  training  and 
instruction  in  regular  public  schools  during  ages  12  to  15  or  1 6. 

c.  Where  young  women  are  eager  for  homemaking  education, 
but  home  facilities  for  training  are  unavailable. 

e.  Where  no  school  facilities  are  available  and  teachers  must 
do  all  work  in  the  homes  of  the  girls. 

/.  Where  women  can  or  will  take  training  only  after  marriage, 
but  where  their  own  homes  can  then  be  extensively  used  for  that 
purpose. 

VI.   THE  "CASE  METHOD"  OF  STUDY 

Probably  the  most  profitable  methods  of  approach  to  the 
problems  here  under  consideration  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
determination  of  desirable  objectives  of  vocational  homemaking 
education  are  to  be  found  in  the  provision  of  curricula  and 
programs  for  typical  "case"  situations,  as  illustrated  below: 

CASE  A 

A  woman,  22  years  of  age,  expecting  to  be  married,  wishes  six 
months'  full-time  training  in  homemaking.  She  has  been  an 
industrial  wage-worker  for  seven  years  and  knows  nothing  on 
the  "doing"  side  about  homemaking.  She  cannot  cook,  set  a 
table,  make  a  bed,  or  patch  a  dress.  She  has  had  no  experience 
in  handling  babies,  entertaining  small  children,  caring  for  the 
sick,  buying  furniture  or  keeping  household  accounts.  As  a 

[16] 


"boarder"  or  consumer  in  her  own  home  she  has  the  usual  "appre- 
ciations" of  good  cooking,  well-kept  rooms,  etc. 

Assume  that  at  30  she  is  to  have  three  children,  that  she  will 
have  a  five-room  house,  in  a  suburban  or  village  community,  and 
that  the  family  income  will  be  $1200  annually.  Assume  that  after 
marriage  she  will  have  to  rely  largely  on  herself  (not  having  a 
mother  or  other  elder  person  living  with  her),  and  that  she  is 
ambitious  to  start  married  life  as  a  good  worker  in  her  new  voca- 
tion as  homemaker. 

Assume  also  the  availability  of  sufficient  means  to  give  her  a 
good  vocational  education — a  home  as  a  workshop  to  meet  re- 
quirements for  prepared  food,  patched  clothing,  care  of  babies, 
on  a  strictly  productive  (as  opposed  to  "exercise")  basis,  as  well  as 
books,  laboratory  facilities,  etc. 

Problems  to  be  Solved 

Problem  I .  What  should  be  the  specific  aims  of  the  six  months' 
vocational  education  to  be  provided? 

Problem  2.  What  amounts  of  available  time  (assume  150 
working  days  of  eight  hours  each)  should  be  given  respectively  to: 

Majors 

a.  Foods:    selection  and  purchase,  preparation,  serving,  dis- 
posal, re-use,  dishwashing,  etc. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  studies. 

(c)  Related  social  studies. 

b.  Clothing:   selection,   purchase,   making,   remaking,  repair, 
up-keep. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  studies. 

(c)  Related  social  studies. 

c.  Care  of  house:   bed-making,  sweeping,  keeping  articles  in 
order;  cleansing  furniture,  wood,  glass,  stoves,  bathroom  fixtures, 
etc. ;  making  minor  repairs  to  lights,  plumbing,  locks,  etc. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 


d.  Laundry,  including  ironing,  etc. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

e.  Children,  including  sociability  and  by-education. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

•  Minors 

f.  Household    accounting,    including    especially    planning    of 
expenditures,  budget  making,  use  of  inventories,  segregation  of 
expenditures,  investment  of  savings,  etc.1 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

g.  Housing  and  furniture:     selection,   fundamental  or  long- 
period  readjustments  and  renovation  (not  included  under  "care 
of  house"). 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 
h.    Care  of  sick. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

i.    Adult  sociability  and  social  culture  (excluding  sociability 
with  children). 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 
j.   Yard  and  garden. 

(a)  Skills,  practical  performance. 

(b)  Related  technical  knowledge. 

(c)  Related  social  knowledge. 

Problem  3.   What  order  of  presentation  of  the  above  subjects 
would  be  followed? 

1For  some  type  of  homes,  and  perhaps  eventually  for  all,  this  should  be  a 
major. 

[18] 


Problem  4.  In  each  case  what  provision  would  be  made  for 
training  in  practical  skills? 

Problem  5.  How  should  related  technical  knowledge  be  given, 
and  in  what  relation  to  practice  on  productive,  useful,  skill- 
forming  work? 

Problem  6.  Should  "practical"  exercises  (non-productive)  be 
accepted  in  lieu  of  productive  work? 

Problem  7.    How  should  related  social  knowledge  be  given? 

Problem  8.  What  tests  of  final  competency  in  each  case  would 
be  provided. 

CASE  B 

Identical  with  Case  A,  except  that  the  total  time  available  for 
training  for  vocation  is  three  months,  or  seventy-five  working 
days,  of  eight  hours  each. 

CASE  c 

Identical  with  Case  A,  except  that  women  must  continue  wage- 
earning,  and  can  give  only  four  (evening)  hours  weekly  for  sixty 
weeks,  divided  between  two  years. 

CASE  D 

Identical  with  Case  A,  except  that  women  can  give  only  time 
after  she  is  married  and  living  in  her  own  home.  Can  then  give 
six  afternoon  hours  in  school  and  twenty-four  (or  more  if  neces- 
sary) hours  to  productive  work  in  her  own  home,  weekly,  for 
sixteen  weeks.  Assume  teachers  with  ample  time  for  visiting 
and  supervision  of  home  work. 

CASE  E 

Farmer's  daughter,  22  years  old,  eighth  grade  education.  Has 
always  helped  in  farm  home  and  can  perform  all  ordinary  opera- 
tions with  the  moderate  efficiency  produced  by  home  apprentice- 
ship, including  care  of  small  children.  Has  little  technical 
knowledge  or  social  insight  relative  to  the  homemaking  vocation. 

Expects  to  get  married  within  a  year,  to  have  a  farm  house 
(northern  Mississippi  Valley),  with  cash  budget  of  $600  yearly 
and  income  in  "kind"  (owned  house,  water,  wood,  vegetables, 
fruit,  milk)  equivalent  to  $250.  Assume  three  children  at  age  of 
thirty  and  only  occasional  household  help. 

[19] 


Assume  possibilities  of  her  attending  full  time  for  three  months 
a  vocational  school  of  homemaking  distant  100  miles  from  her 
home.  Assume  this  school  to  possess  all  reasonable  equipment 
and  teaching  force  required  to  carry  into  effect  such  programs  as 
it  might  decide  to  be  desirable  for  students  of  the  class  of  Case  E. 

Problem  I .  What  would  such  a  school  establish  as  its  standards 
of  vocational  proficiency  for  such  a  woman?  Classify  objectives 
separately  under  the  categories  given  for  Case  A,  distinguishing 
under  each  between  practical  skill,  related  technical  knowledge 
and  related  social  insight. 

Problem  2.  How  will  the  school  test  and  evaluate  the  powers 
and  capacities  in  homemaking  possessed  by  the  woman  at 
entrance?  How  will  it  correlate  these  with  the  new  powers  and 
capacities  it  will  seek  to  produce? 

Problem  3.  What  will  such  a  school  seek  to  offer  as  training 
and  instruction  under  each  of  the  categories  given  in  Case  A? 
Or,  what  will  be  its  programs  of  instruction? 

Problem  4.  What  will  such  a  school  provide  in  the  way  of 
facilities  for  practice?  In  foods?  Laundry?  Child  care?  Sick 
care?  Housing? 

Problem  5.  How  will  such  a  school  avoid  stressing  urban 
conditions?  How  can  it  keep  solidly  in  touch  with  rural  condi- 
tions? 

CASE  F 

Identical  with  Case  E,  except  that  the  woman  has  gone  to 
high  school  and  normal  school  and  has  taught  two  years,  as  a 
consequence  of  which  her  skills  and  technical  knowledge  of  home- 
making  at  the  outset  are  negligible  while  her  appreciations  arc 
normal. 

CASE  G 

Identical  with  Case  E,  except  that  the  woman  can  give  three 
hours  daily  to  the  homemaking  school,  located  one  hour  away, 
and  the  remainder  to  her  mother's  home,  where  productive 
educational  work  can  be  done. 

VII.  SOME  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 

In  the  framing  and  passage  of  the  Smith-Hughes  Act,  granting 
national  aid  to  certain  forms  of  vocational  education,  home  eco- 

[20] 


nomics  was  included  at  the  eleventh  hour.  (A  distinguished 
member  of  the  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education  has 
publicly  asserted  that  the  home  economics  provision  was  a 
"monkey-wrench  thrown  into  otherwise  perfectly  good  machin- 
ery. "^JMany  teachers  of  home  economics  in  elementary  and 
especially  in  secondary  schools  who  were  serenely  pursuing  the 
even  tenor  of  their  way  before  the  enactment  of  the  Smith-Hughes 
law  now  find  also  that  that  law  is  playing  the  disastrous  part  of 
money-wrench  in  their  heretofore  smooth-running  machinery. 

JWhat  is  the  vocational  education  that  prepares  for  home- 
making  or  the  work  of  housewife?  Under  what  conditions  is 
home  economics  "vocational"?'  What  else  can  the  subject  be,  if 
not  vocational?^  These,  and  many  other  similar  questions  are  dis- 
concerting, if  not  haunting,  many  of  our  home  economics  teachers 
to-day.  They  are  destined  to  put  to  the  test  not  a  few  of  current 
traditions  as  to  aims  and  methods  of  education  in  fields  only 
distantly  related  to  the  homemaking  vocation.  They  show  the 
utter  inadequacy  of  some  current  interpretations  of  educational 
values  made  by  men  of  strong  academic  prepossessions. 

The  immediate  difficulties  confronting  home  economics  teachers 
arise  from  a  few  simple  but  more  or  less  conflicting  conditions: 
(a)  Congress  enacted  the  Smith-Hughes  law  to  aid  vocational 
education,  and  only  vocational  education.  (b~)  The  public  has  all 
along  believed  that  the  home  economics  courses  which  had  be- 
come so  generally  established  in  progressive  school  systems  were 
vocational  in  intent  and  results.  Hence  the  public  has  insisted 
that  schools  maintaining  these  courses  should  proceed  to  claim 
their  due  share  of  "Smith-Hughes"  money,  (c)  The  administering 
authorities  have  in  some  cases  denied  that  home  economics 
courses  as  ordinarily  found  are  in  fact  vocational,  and  have  in- 
sisted on  new  and  sometimes  difficult  modifications. 

Now,  it  is  well  known  that  many  differences  of  mind  in  this 
imperfect  world  are  due  to  failures  to  define  terms  and  standards. 
How  far  is  this  the  situation  here?  On  the  other  hand,  sore 
contests  always  arise  when  progressive  action  is  being  taken,  the 
very  nature  of  which  necessitates  discarding  of  familiar  habits, 
and  readjustment  of  standards.  The  authorities  charged  with 
the  enforcement  of  the  law  claim  that  such  is  often  the  case 
here. 

[21] 


The  history  of  the  evolution  of  vocational  education  shows  how 
present  confusion  in  almost  all  fields  of  vocational  education 
arises  under  both  the  conditions  stated  above.  A  few  basic  in- 
quiries will  make  this  clear.  (What  does  "vocational  education" 
mean?  Does  it  include  all  those  forms  of  experience,  instruction, 
and  training,  in  school  and  out  of  school,  which,  superadded  to 
the  individual's  native  endowment,  finally  give  him  that  which 
we  recognize  as  vocational  competency?)  Then  it  will  be  admitted 
that,  in  the  sense  iised,  every  one,  substantially,  for  thousands  of 
years,  has  received  a  vocational  education — good,  bad  or  indif- 
ferent, complete  or  incomplete,  wasteful  or  economical,  as  the 
case  may  be.  In  that  sense,  then,  every  housewife  and  every 
domestic  servant  in  the  United  States  to-day  has  received  some 
vocational  education,  although  few  have  received  any  part  of 
that  education  through  an  agency  which  could  properly  be  called 
a  school. 

£  We  are  now  on  educational  bedrock.  When  and  why  do  we 
/seek  to  establish  schools  for  vocational  education  to  supplement 
or  replace  the  other  agencies?  Only  when  these  other  agencies 
are  insufficient  to  the  needs  of  the  time  and  when  a  type  of  a 
school  is  invented  that  can  give  the  education.  That  has  been 
the  history  of  vocational  schools  of  war  leadership,  medicine, 
priesthood,  pharmacy,  navigation,  law,  civil  engineering,  stenog- 
raphy, telephone  switchboard  operating,  nursing,  and  elementary 
school  teaching.  It  will  probably  be  the  history  of  schools  of 
journalism,  acting,  indoor  salesmanship,  waiting  on  table,  poultry 
farming,  house  carpentry,  school  nursing,  automobile  repair, 
homemaking  and  engine  firing.  (It  can  hardly  be  said  that  W3 
have  vocational  schools  for  this  second  group  of  vocations  as  yet; 
current  attempts  are  hardly  beyond  the  experimental  stage.) 

Do  vocational  schools  at  first  undertake  to  give  complete  com- 
petency for  a  given  vocation — complete,  that  is,  as  reasonably 
practicable  for  the  age  at  which  graduation  is  expected?  Rarely 
ever.^  Sometimes  they  assume  a  previous  period  of  apprentice- 
ship^—as  did  earlier  schools  of  law,  medicine,  engineering,  and 
teaching  (under  the  pupil-teacher  system  in  England).  Some- 
times they  have  counted  upon  what  is  in  effect  an  apprenticeship 
subsequent  to  schooling — as  do  present-day  schools  of  law, 
medicine,  stenography,  and  engineering.  Sometimes,  however, 

[22] 


they  have  paralleled  practice  and  study  in  order  to  dispense  with 
prior  and  subsequent  apprenticeship,  as  do  present-day  schools 
of  nursing  and  elementary  school  teaching  and  as  some  engineer- 
ing, trade,  and  farming  schools  are  endeavoring  to  do. 

It  is  now  good  usage  to  call  that  vocational  education  in 
schools  which  presupposes  previous  or  concurrent  practice  of  an 
occupation,  extension  teaching;  all  that  instruction  in  the  art, 
science,  mathematics,  and  language  of  a  vocation  which  antici- 
pates or  precedes  practice  of  a  vocation,  technical  instruction; 
and  all  that  vocational  education  which  undertakes  to  teach  prac- 
tical skill  and  related  technical  and  social  knowledge  in  close 
correlation  as  basic  vocational  education.  (But  technical  in- 
struction not  directed  towards,  and  usually  functioning  in, 
vocational  practice  cannot  properly  be  called  vocational  edu- 
cation.) 

In  discussing  standards  for  vocational  education  let  us  frankly 
recognize  that  many  professional  schools,  notwithstanding  the 
years  of  history  behind  them,  are  far  from  having  yet  determined, 
with  any  useful  degree  of  precision,  either  their  aims  or  the 
validity  of  their  means  and  methods.  Even  the  best  engineering 
schools  are  to-day  only  higher  technical  schools,  although  some 
are  now  attempting,  through  summer  practice,  to  give  a  certain 
amount  of  skill  and  managerial  ability.  In  general,  their  facul- 
ties still  satisfy  themselves  with  the  easy  assumption  that  prac- 
tical skill  and  mangerial  powers  are  things  that  must  be  learned 
in  "the  school  of  experience" — with  all  the  wastefulness  and  mal- 
adjustment which  that  involves.  Most  varieties  of  commercial 
education  are  still  on  an  essentially  technical  basis — they  do  not 
prepare  for  a  given  vocation,  but  only  give  the  instruction  sup- 
posed to  be  useful  to  one  beginning  what  will  be  practically  an 
apprenticeship  in  the  practice  of  the  vocation.  The  one  sub- 
stantial exception  is  stenography  and  typewriting — here  the 
candidate  is,  in  the  best  schools,  actually  prepared  to  begin  at 
once  the  commercial  practice  of  her  vocation. 

Probably  the  most  disputed  question  in  recent  and  contempo- 
rary movements  for  the  extension  of  vocational  proficiency  in 
various  callings  has  been  the  value  of  technical  instruction  in 
advance  of  practice.  Long  before  we  had  basic  vocational  schools 
for  such  occupations  as  machine-shop  practice,  electricity,  print- 

[23] 


ing,  carpentry,  homemaking  and  farming,  our  technical  high 
schools  had  developed  courses  of  technical  instruction  in,  or 
somewhat  related  to,  these  callings.  But  practical  men  have 
always  been  very  skeptical  of  the  results  of  such  courses.  It  is 
true  that  these  schools  can  easily  be  administered  so  that  they 
will  select  the  most  promising  candidates  for  the  respective  occu- 
pations. A  little  judicious  advertising  and  testing  of  entrants 
will  accomplish  that  purpose.  Having  selected  personalities 
that  are  certain  to  attain  success  in  their  callings  in  any  event, 
it  is  easy  and  natural,  reasoning  post  hoc  ergo  propter  hoc,  to 
attribute  the  success  of  these  students  to  the  instruction  they 
received  in  school.  During  recent  years  a  classic  example  of 
this  kind  has  been  given  very  wide  publicity.  A  certain  tech- 
nical high  school  collected  data  which  showed  that  boys  leaving 
school  at  fourteen  and  commencing  work  at,  say,  $5  per  week, 
will  have  been  advanced  to  the  point  where  at  thirty  years  of 
age  they  will  be  earning,  say,  $15  per  week;  whereas  graduates 
of  the  technical  high  school,  possibly  starting  at  age  of  18  at 
only  five  or  six  dollars  per  week  will  be  earning  twenty-five  to 
thirty  dollars  per  week  at  the  age  of  30.  Now,  admitting  the 
facts,  they,  of  course,  prove  nothing  as  to  the  value  of  technical 
high  school  instruction  and  training.  Every  observer  of  schools 
knows  that  only  very  high-grade  boys  enter  technical  high 
schools ;  that  of  these  only  the,  best  survive  the  first  year  or  two ; 
and  that  the  graduates  are  a  very  picked  lot,  and  destined  to 
success  in  life,  schooling  or  no  schooling. 

Among  all  well-informed  educators  the  conclusion  is  now 
generally  held  that  for  a  large  majority  of  callings  technical  in- 
struction in  advance  of  practical  applications — which  usually 
means  applications  in  productive  work  and  under  commercial 
conditions — is  almost  valueless,  and  sometimes  decidedly  harm- 
ful. It  is  obvious  that  electrical  engineering  offers  a  relatively 
large  volume  of  technical  knowledge.  A  person  of  exceptional 
capacity  for  abstract  thinking  can  spend  several  years  in  master- 
ing this  knowledge — as  organized  in  mathematics,  mechanics, 
chemistry,  engineering  theory,  etc.  Then  he  can  begin  practice, 
and  apply  his  knowledge  as  he  finds  occasion.  But  every  man 
familiar  with  the  conditions  of  higher  education  is  aware  that 
only  from  one  to  three  per  cent  of  persons  between  eighteen  and 

[24] 


thirty  years  of  age  are  able  to  develop  the  powers  required, 
according  to  current  standards,  of  electrical  engineers. 

In  pattern-making,  on  the  other  hand,  skill  bulks  large  and 
technical  knowledge  small.  The  men  who  ordinarily  enter  pat- 
tern-making are  usually  strong  in  "mechanical  instincts"  and  not 
so  strong  in  those  powers  of  abstract  thinking  which  are  exem- 
plified in  the  study  of  mathematics.  Every  educator  knows 
that  appeals  to  common  experience  will  help  us  here.  We  should 
hardly  expect  a  person  to  profit  greatly  from  several  months' 
instruction  in  the  theory  or  technique  of  swimming  before  he 
enters  the  water.  The  writer  once  saw  an  advertisement, 
"Horseback-riding  taught  by  mail,"  but  he  retained  the  hope 
that  the  recipient  of  these  lessons  had  a  horse  to  practice  on 
while  learning.  In  training  a  man  to  be  a  barber  or  a  girl  to  be 
a  waitress,  it  is  apparent  that  only  a  very  little  advance  technical 
knowledge  could  be  given  with  profit. 

In  analyzing  scores  of  occupations  from  this  standpoint,  it  is 
apparent  that  two  types  of  considerations  are  involved,  (a) 
What,  in  any  given  vocation,  are  the  relative  values  of  skill  and 
managerial  abilities. on  the  one  hand,  and  what  we  call  related 
technical  knowledge  on  the  other?  (b)  What  are  the  various 
learning  capacities  of  those  who  are  likely  to  enter  such 
vocation? 

• 
VIII.   APPLICATIONS  OF  THESE  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 

TO  HOMEMAKING  EDUCATION 

It  can  be  readily  understood  from  the  foregoing  discussion 
what  have  been  some  of  the  obstacles  encountered  in  various 
endeavors  to  develop  vocational  homemaking  education.  In 
earlier  stages,  when  technical  knowledge  was  imperfectly  devel- 
oped, only  the  practical  arts  were  taught — cooking,  sewing, 
bedmaking,  etc.  Often,  of  course,  these  subjects,  as  taught  in 
schools,  were  very  superficial  and  artificial.  Then  came  the 
enormous  development  of  technical  knowledge,  especially  in  the 
departments  of  foods,  household  accounting  and  household 
management.  Under  the  head  of  "domestic  art"  similar  develop- 
ments of  technical  knowledge  in  departments  of  clothing,  hous- 
ing, etc.,  were  attempted,  but  with  less  success. 

[25] 


A  second  stage  of  evolution  in  homemaking  education  came 
when,  under  the  collective  name  of  "home  economics,"  courses 
based  on  the  productive  activities  of  the  home  assumed  a  largely 
technical  character — it  must  be  remembered  that  laboratory 
work,  experimentation,  and  practical  exercises  are  integral  parts 
usually  of  technical  instruction,  since,  almost  never,  are  they 
designed  to  produce  basic  skills. 

Hence  the  general  demand  of  competent  critics  to-day  that 
home  economics  education,  seeking  to  meet  requirements  of  voca- 
tional education  for  homemaking  shall:  (a)  provide  for  the  nec- 
essary practical  experience  in  productive  work  required  to  pro- 
duce enduring  skills,  manual  and  managerial,  if  it  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  basic  vocational  education;  or  else  (b)  connect  posi- 
tively and  purposefully  with  previous  practical  experience  if  it 
is  to  be  regarded  as  extension  vocational  education. 

It  is  denied  that  vocational  competency  in  homemaking  as 
that  is  found  now  in  millions  of  American  homes,  and  as  it  is 
desired  on  behalf  of  millions  more  in  the  future,  can  be  more 
than  slightly  produced  by  technical  instruction  alone,  even  if 
that  include  laboratory  and  amateur  productive  exercises. 

It  is  recognized  that  some  home  economics  departments  take 
charge  of  school  lunches.  This  is  good  productive  practice  as 
far  as  it  goes,  even  if  on  excessively  large  scale  for  home  food 
preparation,  but  what  schools  cover  the  various  fields  of  foods, 
clothing,  house  care,  child  care,  laundry,  etc.,  in  this  practical 
way? 

IX.  THE  "PROJECT  METHOD"  OF  TEACHING  HOMEMAKING 

I.  In  the  total  process  of  producing  homemaking  competency 
to  function  in  adult  life,  we  should  recognize  several  distinct 
stages  or  even  different  areas  of  possible  operation.  For  example : 
jra.  .In  girlhood,  from  six  to  twelve,  it  is  obviously  possible  for 
the  mother  or  for  a  teacher  who  can  control  conditions  of  time, 
motive,  and  familiar  implements  as  can  the  mother,  to  train  the 
girl  in  various  specific  skills — tea-making,  dusting,  outing  care 
of  infant,  darning — and  to  attach  to  these  and  related  operations, 
appropriate  technical  knowledge,  appreciations,  aspirations,  and 
ideals. 

[26] 


b.  From  ten  to  sixteen,  at  least  during  the  time  of  transitions 
from  play  motives,  interests  and  powers  to  work  motives,  inter- 
ests and  powers,  it  is  clearly  practicable  in  the  case  of  a  large 
proportion  of  girls,  to  elicit  fairly  strong  interests  in  amateur 
homemaking — when  the  desires  and  motives  are  for  results 
functioning  as  in  the  adult  world  of  work,  but  the  appreciations 
and  powers  are  still  those  of  the  play  stage  and  spirit,  unwilling 
to  tolerate  long  routines,  to  search  for  technical  knowledge,  to 
undergo  drill  or  training. 

In  many  cases  this  would  seem  to  be  an  appropriate  time  for 
rich  offering  of  household  arts  as  general  education.  Apprecia- 
tions, insights,  aspirations,  even  ideals,  can  easily  be  formed  in 
relation  to  novel  situations  in  homemaking,  where  familiarity 
with,  and  en  forced  drudgery  in,  domestic  operations  has  not  bred 
the  blase  attitude  or  even  contempt.  But  teachers  should  be 
careful  not  to  confuse  the  results  of  this  general  education  with 
those  to  be  derived  from  effective  vocational  education. 
7  c.  From  fifteen  to  eighteen  would  seem  to  be  an  appropriate 
time  for  offerings  of  basic  or  extension  vocational  homemaking  to 
girls  who  could  see  clearly  ahead  of  them  wage-earning  employ- 
ment as  assistant  homemakers,  as  trained  employees  in  the  homes 
of  their  mothers  or  others.  For  the  present,  of  course,  little  can 
be  done  here  because  popular  valuations  of  the  vocations  of 
"domestic  service"  are  so  adverse  that  self-respecting  and  ambi- 
tious girls  seek  non-domestic  vocations  by  preference. 

d.  For  young  women  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five,  who  expect 
to  become  independent  homemakers,   there  exist  large  oppor- 
tunities for:    (a)  extension  vocational  education  for  those  who, 
like  many  farmers'  daughters,  have  already  had  extensive  basic 
experience  in  a  large  variety  of  homemaking  operations ;   and  (b) 
basic  vocational  education  for  those  who,  like  a  large  majority 
of  factory  and  office  employees,  have  had  almost  negligibly  small 
experience  in,  or  even  contact  with,  domestic  operations.     Mo- 
tives may  be  strongest  just  before  or  soon  after  marriage. 

e.  Other  stages  or  areas  could  easily  be  defined,  especially  by 
taking  account  of  different  social  classes. 

2.  The  "project"  is,  from  many  points  of  view,  the  best  educa- 
tional device  for  basic  vocational  education.  It  has  not  yet 
been  tried  extensively  in  homemaking.  Its  best  developments 

[27] 


o 


are  found  in  agricultural  education.  As  applied  to  vocational 
education,  the  project  is  a  "job"  or  unit  of  productive  work,  usu- 
ally of  a  utilizable  or  even  marketable  character,  selected  and 
organized  as  constituting  a  valuable  stage  in  an  educational 
process. 

3.  Homemaking  projects  illustrated: 

a.  A  girl  or  woman  of  no  previous  experience  undertakes  to 
make  ten  shirtwaists  of  exactly  the  same  pattern  and  material. 
From  the  making  of  the  first  she  gets  a  large  amount  of  new  ex- 
perience, accompanied  by  a  certain  amount  of  technical  knowl- 
edge, appreciation,  etc.      In  making  the  remainder  she  increases 
her  skill,  organization  of  effort,  etc.    Parallel  with  her  work,  she 
can  be  helped  to  insight,  as  to  social,  hygienic,  and  other  general 
aspects  of  her  work.     If,  after  the  making  of  ten  shirtwaists, 
further  increments  of  permanent  skill  of  applicable  technical 
knowledge  would  be  small,  then  the  educational  value  of  the 
project  has   largely  been   realized.      Further  making  of  shirt- 
waists would  be  valuable  for  production  rather  than  education. 

b.  An  inexperienced  girl,  directed  by  a  competent  teacher, 
gives  three  hours  daily  for  a  month  to  providing  the  breakfasts  of 
a  family  of  six.     Linked  up  with  the  actual  preparation  of  the 
food  and  washing  of  the  dishes,  will  be  such  technical  matters  as 
planning  variations  in  menus,  selecting  and  buying  materials, 
keeping  suitable  accounts.    Related  studies  of  nutrition,  markets, 
technical  processes,  etc.,  can  easily  be  linked  up  to,  and  inter- 
preted by,  this  project  by  the  teacher  through  lectures,  readings, 
problems,  etc. 

4.  Scores  of  other  suitable  projects,  large  and  small,  can  ba 
devised.     Care  of  the  outing  hours  of  an  infant  for  two  weeks; 
care  of  a  bed-chamber  for  two  weeks;    performance  of  family 
washing  for  four  weeks;    washing  and  dressing  of  a  child  or 
infant  for  two  weeks ;  baking  family  bread  for  a  month ;  canning 
four  dozen  jars  of  plums;   preparation  of  five  successive  Sunday 
dinners;  keeping  the  accounts  of  a  family  for  six  months  on  basis 
of  "slips"  supplied  by  the  family;    keeping  clothing  of  three 
children  in  repair  for  three  months,  etc.    For  service  in  schools, 
those  projects  should  be  analyzed  in  detail,  reference  readings 
specifically  indicated,  and  related  technical  and  social  studies 
analyzed  in  detail. 

[28] 


5.  Where   the  previous  practical  experience  of  the  student 
justifies  the  offering  of  extension  rather  than  basic  vocational 
courses,  there  may  be  less  place  for  projects,  and  relatively  more 
for  topics  of  study,  collection  of  materials  and  reports,  problems 
for  analysis,  laboratory  exercises,  investigations,  etc. 

a.  For  example,  a  farmer's  daughter,  age  twenty,  coming  to 
a  short-course,  full-time  school,  who  has  had  much  experience 
with  her  mother  (frequently  supplementing  her),  may  be  most 
in  need  of  technical  knowledge  which  she  can  relate  to  her  already 
well-assimilated  experience.     She  may  most  need  explanations 
of  the  processes  she  has  learned  by  imitation  or  rule  of  thumb 
methods,  including  improved  processes,  accounting,  etc. 

b.  Where  home  economics  is  taught  as  one  subject  in  a  cur- 
riculum of  general  education — being  paralleled  by  courses  in 
English,  mathematics,  physics,  etc.,  it  might  be  possible  to  give 
the  home  economics  a  vocational  flavor  by  offering  it,  in  the  case 
of  pupils  of  known  home  opportunities,  as  extension  instruction; 
but  the  difficulties  are  great,  and  the  method  is  seldom  used. 

c.  The  "project"  is  often  confused  with  an  "exercise"  or  even 
with  a  "demonstration."     For  the  sake  of  explicitness  it  would 
seem  best  to  confine  the  term  to  a  unit  of  work  which  combines 
productive  and  educative  possibilities,  and  possessing  possibili- 
ties of  repeated  performance  so  as  to  give  skills. 

6.  Problems  of  Project  Method: 

a.  What   should   be   the   "magnitude"   of   a   project?     This 
partly  dependent  on  external  character  of  the  work,  partly  on 
psychology    of    learners.      Young    learners    need    smaller    and 
shorter  time  projects  than  older.     Every  project  should  take 
the  learner  beyond  the  play  stage  of  experience  into  work  stage. 
Short,  fragmentary  experiences,  even  in  fields  of  drudgery  may, 
by  novelty,  sustain  play  interest  for  a  time.    For  girls  twelve  to 
sixteen,   it   is"  surmised   that  valuable   projects   should   require 
from  ten  to  fifty  hours,  no  period  of  application  being  less  than 
two,  and  preferably  four  to  six  hours.     For  young  women,  pro- 
jects may  require  20  to  60  hours,  optimum  single  periods  of 
application  (in  productive  work  and  related  study)  being  four 
hours. 

b.  What  should  be  the  "compositeness"  or  "complexity"  of 
projects?    For  best  learning  purposes,  probably,  a  project  should 

[29] 


center  in  one  natural  or  normal  "strand"  or  field  of  activity. 
Within  one  day,  a  housewife  dresses  children,  prepares  meals, 
makes  beds,  etc.  But  a  learner  can  probably  make  best  progress 
by  focusing  effort  on  one  or  two  of  these  recurrent  series  of  jobs, 
so  as  to  attend  to  acquisition  of  skills,  interpretations,  etc. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  related  minor  jobs  normally  belonging  to 
a  major  job  should  be  included  in  the  project.  A  cooking  project 
not  involving  related  cleaning  up;  a  laundry  project  not  involv- 
ing subsequent  ironing;  a  breakfast  project  not  involving  buying 
and  accounting — these  would  probably  be  unwisely  broken. 

c.  How  can  related  technical  knowledge  and  social  insight  be 
integrated  to  the  project?     Eventually  we  shall  probably  have 
hundreds  of  projects  given  in  detail  in  booklets,  with  references 
to  related  readings,  etc.    For  the  present  the  teacher  should  seek 
to  build  about  each  project  a  series  of  readings,  technical  and 
social. 

d.  Should  cooperative  projects  be  provided?     Occasionally, 
but  not  to  an  extent  which  will  prevent  fullest  acquisition  of 
individual  powers  (of  execution)  and  capacities  (for  appreciation). 
Cooperative  sociability  projects  are  especially  good — giving  a 
reception  or  entertainment,  relieving  a  poor  family.     Probably 
also  certain  projects  necessarily  of  an  "observation  and  report" 
character — planning  the  location  of  a  farmhouse,  furnishing  a 
kitchen,  etc.,  could  be  of  a  cooperative  character. 

X.   FEDERAL  BOARD'S  BULLETIN  No.  28 

(Organization  and  Administration  of  Home  Economics 
Education) 

This  bulletin  "may  be  considered  as  an  official  answer  to  the 
many  inquiries  concerning  matters  of  policy  in  home  economics 
education  received  by  the  office  of  the  Federal  Board." 

In  general,  the  definitions  and  interpretations  found  in  this 
bulletin  represent  the  best  of  available  knowledge  and  practicable 
expectations  in  homemaking  education.  The  problems  sug- 
gested below,  dealing  mainly  with  questions  of  objectives,  are 
expected  to  arise  as  further  developments  take  place  in  this  field ; 
but  for  sake  of  concrete  analysis  these  problems  are  here  stated  as 
of  the  present,  and  with  no  intention  of  conveying  adverse  criticism. 

[30] 


1.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  Jaw  uses  the  term  "home  eco- 
nomics" which  describes  neither  a  vocation  nor  the  common 
characteristics  of  a  group  of  vocations  as  do  the  terms  "commer- 
cial," "professional,"  etc.    The  words  "home  economics"  will  long 
continue  to  connote  a  group  of  technical  studies  only,  in  spite  of 
all  effort  to  the  contrary.     Educators  should  now  make  con- 
certed efforts  to  settle  on  more  serviceable  terminologies. 

2.  Why  should  it  be  held  that  in  "separate  vocational  schools 
of  home  economics"  which  have  "but  little  articulation  with  the 
other  phases  of  work  of  the  school  system"  the  courses  offered 
"are  usually  two  years  in  length,  although  a  few  schools  offer 
four-year  courses"?    Are  these  arrangements  defended?     Ought 
not  administrators  move  steadily  toward  short,  intensive  courses, 
each  composed  of  short  units,  in  vocational  homemaking?    Will 
not  "long  courses"  perpetuate  the  weaknesses  of  "long  course," 
over- technical,    insufficiently    practical,    industrial,   agricultural 
and  commercial  courses? 

3.  Is  it  well  to  try  to  force  the  word  "laboratory"  to  .include 
the  meanings  given  on  page  33  and  elsewhere?  Etymologically, 
the  word  "laboratory"  may  mean  the  same  as  workshop  or  place 
of  productive  work;  but  historically  and  practically,  in  thousands 
of  industrial  establishments,  colleges,  and  other  centers  of  re- 
search, it  now  means  specially  equipped  places  of  experimenta- 
tion, investigation,  testing,  and  study.  It  once  meant,  also,  a 
place  of  production  of  drugs ;  but  even  this  meaning  is  becoming 
obscured.  To  try  to  use  the  term  in  a  special  sense  as  designating 
a  place  for  "practice  in  all  the  home  activities  which  are  taught 
within  the  (vocational)  school,  such  as  housekeeping,  garment- 
making,  etc.,"  is  to  court  endless  misunderstandings,  misdirected 
effort  and  perpetuation  of  old  traditions  of  technical  instruction. 
A  laboratory  is  not  a  place  for  the  practice  of  a  vocation: 
that  is  a  farm,  shop,  office,  kitchen,  home,  or  school.  Let  a 
homemaking  school,  using  "local  (or  actual)  homes"  or  "school 
homes"  for  practice,  have  one  or  more  small  laboratories  for 
testing,  experimentation,  etc. ;  but  call  the  practice  place  a  school 
home  or  an  actual  home/) 

4.  Is  it  wise  to  provicle  so  extensively  for  the  necessarily  arti- 
ficial equipment  suggested  on  pages  19  and  20?  Homes  are 
found  in  large  numbers  within  a  dozen  blocks  of  almost  all 


except  country  schools.  These  are  real  homes,  where  real  pro- 
ductive work  must  be  done.  Judging  by  experience  in  other 
fields  of  vocational  education,  artificial  equipments  of  this  kind 
can  be  used  for  genuinely  laboratory  purposes  and  for  demon- 
stration purposes,  but  never  effectively  for  practice  purposes. 
More  readily  than  in  almost  any  other  field  it  should  prove  prac- 
ticable in  homemaking  to  establish  cooperative  or  part-time 
arrangements.  To  realize  the  maximum  benefits,  these  should 
be  on  a  project  basis. 

;  5.  "Vocational  subjects  to  be  selected  (for  a  course  in  voca- 
tional home  economics)  should  be  determined  by  an  analysis  of 
the  occupation."  This  is,  of  course,  indispensable,  but  it  should 
be  noted  that,  for  practical  purposes: 

a.  Such   an   analysis  by  strands  of  work  or  types  of  daily 
duty  is  almost  valueless  unless  it  also  somehow  indicate  degrees 
of  proficiency  in  each.     All  homemakers  in  America  now,  the 
very  poor  no  less  than  the  good,  can  cook,  serve,  repair  clothing, 
care  for  children,  buy  furniture.    But  we  want  the  next  genera- 
tion to  do  these  things  better. 

b.  Because  of  the  few  fundamental  types  of  homemaking  and 
the  universality  of  home  activities,  central  authorities  (state  or, 
preferably,  national)  can  make  these  occupational  analyses  to 
best  advantage.    Individual  teachers  need  much  help  here,  espe- 
cially while  standards  are  so  vague.  fAs  suggested  before,  home 
economics    teachers    are    usually    insufficiently    equipped    with 
practical  knowledge  of  home  productive  processes  (as  carried  on 
in  actual  homes)  as  these  should  be  scientifically  analyzed,  de- 
scribed, and  evaluated.) 

6.  "The  law  provides  that  schools  or  classes  giving  instruction 
to  persons  who  have  not  entered  upon  employment  shall  require 
that  at  least  half  of  the  time  of  such  instruction  shall  be  given  to 
practical  work  on  a  useful  or  productive  basis."  But  the  Federal 
Board  here  holds  "practical  work  on  a  useful  basis"  to  mean 
"instruction  in  vocational  subjects  designed  as  preparation  for 
homemaking."  Experience  will  undoubtedly  show  that  this 
interpretation  is  indefensible  either  as  good  law  or  good  pedagogy. 
Practical  work  on  a  useful  basis  is  just  as  capable  of  recognition 
and  of  being  provided  in  homemaking  as  in  gardening,  dressmak- 
ing, carpentry,  elementary  school- teaching,  and  hospital  practice. 

[32] 


y.  Home  projects  are  recommended  (pp.  28-34).  But  the 
rank  and  file  of  teachers  can  make  little  or  no  progress  in  home 
project  work  until  the  leaders  shall  have  worked  out  guidance 
materials  no  less  elaborate  than  are  those  now  found  for  labora- 
tory practice  in  technical  instruction.  Many  model  projects 
worked  out  in  utmost  detail,  and  hundreds  in  outline  involving 
close  adjustments  to  varying  conditions,  are  required  as  pre- 
liminary to  any  effective  utilization  of  the  project  method.  These 
should  be  available  in  booklet  form. 


XL   HOUSEHOLD  ARTS  AS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

It  is  very  important  that  schools  of  general  education,  and 
especially  those  dealing  with  girls  from  12  to  16  years  of  age  (the 
period  of  true  amateur  spirit  of  production)  should  offer  courses 
of  household  arts,  conceived  very  much  as  are  now  home  gar- 
dening, scouting,  and  the  best  manual  training,  as  a  means 
of  genuine  liberal  education.  Such  courses  should  preferably 
be  elective,  should  occupy  from  two  to  four  hours  weekly, 
and  should  center  in  "project"  work  and  general  inspirational 
reading.  For  a  few  girls  vocational  skills  and  knowledge  will 
doubtless  accrue  from  these  courses,  as  they  do  for  boys  in 
home-gardening  and  shopwork;  but  unless  these  are  regarded 
as  incidental  products  the  "liberalizing"  spirit  of  the  work  will  be 
spoiled.  Probably  appreciations  and  ideals  of  ultimate  vocational 
significance  will  also  accrue  for  many,  but  these  also  should 
normally  be  regarded  as  incidental  or  secondary  accompaniments 
for  these  ages  of  effective  liberal  education.  A  few  general  theses 
are  submitted: 

i.  The  fundamental  difficulties  now  encountered  in  realizing 
valuable  results  from  home  economics  instruction  by  depart- 
mental teachers  with  girls  from  12  to  16  years  of  age  are  due  in 
large  part  to  confusion  of  purposes  between  vocational  and  liberal. 
The  courses  offered  constitute  minor  offerings  in  schemes  of 
education  primarily  liberal  or  general;  the  specialized  teachers 
have  in  view  ends  that  are  somewhat  vaguely  vocational,  at  least 
so  far  as  technical  instruction  can  serve  these  ends  under  the 
circumstances. 

[33] 


2.  The  primary  purpose  of  schools  for  children  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  years  of  age  is  the  giving  of  liberal,  as  distinguished 
from  vocational,  education.     For  pupils  who  elect  to  continue 
their  general  or  liberal  education  in  regular  high  schools,  primary 
purposes  should  also  be  found  in  liberal  education.    There  is  no 
evidence  that  a  small  amount — one-tenth  to  one-third — of  total 
time  available,  given  to  vocational  education,  can  be  made  to 
function  as  assured  vocational  competency. 

3.  Household  arts  for  girls  from  12  to  16  years  of  age  (and,  if 
motive  can  be  enlisted,  for  boys  as  well)  can  certainly  be  made  a 
means  of  liberal  education.    To  effect  this  will  probably  require 
some  important  modifications  in  the  means  and  methods  now 
usually  employed. 

4.  The  objectives  of  liberal  education  are  less  easily  defined 
than  those  of  vocational  education,  the  most  visible  and  measur- 
able outcome  of  which  is  power  of  producing  in  a  specified  field 
and  for  a  prolonged  period,  valuable  service  or  goods,  commonly 
of  the  kind  called  "exchangeable"  and  the  exchangeable  worth  of 
which  is  usually  for  convenience  given  a  money  value  which 
readily  serves  as  a  measure.      "Liberal"  education  has  as  its  ob- 
jectives the  product  of  a  variety  of  qualities,  many  of  which  may 
be  included  under  such  terms  as  appreciations,  tastes,  sentiments, 
ideal  valuations,  ideals,  insights,  understandings.     Liberal  educa- 
tion in  a  given  field — language,  literature,  science,  sociability, 
art,  nature,  society,  religion,  government,  agriculture,  household 
arts,  urban  surroundings,  etc.,  etc. — seeks  the  humanistic  ends  of 
deepened  and  widened  social  sympathies. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  get  teachers  to  understand  the  difference 
^between,  for  example,  vocational  training  and  amateur  execution, 
/  because  too  few  teachers  have  ever  been  definitely  trained  for  their 
vocations,  as  have  been  physicians,  nurses,  locomotive  engineers, 
dentists,  military  officers,  and  architects.  College  professors, 
superintendents,  principals  of  schools,  high  school  teachers,  and 
home  economics  teachers  are  rarely,  if  ever,  trained  to  a  deter- 
minate work  of  teaching.  They  have  received  much  instruction, 
of  course,  which,  more  or  less  vaguely,  has  been  assumed  to  be 
necessary  to  their  success  as  teachers  or  executives.  But  for  the 
rest  they  have  "picked  up"  their  vocations  in  a  nai've,  primitive, 
and  more  or  less  "hit  or  miss"  fashion.  Hence,  educators  find  it 

[34] 


exceptionally  difficult  to  form  distinct  ideas  of  what  is  meant  by 
specified  specialized  vocational  training. 

5.  What  will  be  some  of  the  means  and  methods  of  "liberal" 
household  arts  education? 

a.  It  must  not  be  obligatory.     The  girl  must  be  attracted  to 
it,  not  driven  to  it. 

b.  It  must,  to  the  maximum  extent  practicable,  use  the  girl's 
own  home,  yard,  bedroom,  mother,  father,  brothers  and  sisters, 
pets,  dress,  health,  and  aspirations  as  means  of  objective  inter- 
pretation, but  always  only  in  the  friendliest  cooperative  spirit. 
Nothing  forced  or  inquisitorial  will  do  here.    To  a  large  extent, 
teaching  must  be  impersonal,  reference  always  being  made  to 
"third  parties." 

c.  Much   reliance   must   be   placed   on   stimulating   reading. 
We  have  hardly  begun  yet  to  produce  readings  idealizing  and 
interpreting  the  home,  as  the  army,  scouting  and  business  enter- 
prise have  been  idealized  for  boys.    Results  of  individual  reading 
must,  of  course,  be  socialized  by  conference,  discussion,  reports, 
etc. 

d.  The  demonstration  of  standards  by  "model  apartment," 
house,  room,  article  of  furniture,  curtain,  bed,  set  table,  dress, 
home  apparatus,  should  play  a  part  as  objectifying  means,  but 
due  allowances  should  be  made  for  the  "soullessness"  of  these 
when  they  are  not  in  practical  operation  or  use. 

e.  Demonstrations  of  process — cooking,  clothes-making,  bed- 
making,  washing  of  baby,  gardening — give  vitality  and  concrete 
interpretation  of  standards.     The  apperceiving  powers  of  girls 
are  obviously  great  here  toward  the  formation   of   tastes   and 
standards. 

/.  Projects  are  especially  valuable  as  educational  means,  and 
naturally  the  majority  will  be  "home  projects" — that  is,  the  in- 
spiration and  direction  will  come  from  the  school,  but  the  time, 
place,  and,  largely,  the  means  of  execution  will  be  provided  by  the 
home.  The  range  of  projects  offered  by  the  school  should  be  as 
extensive  as  practicable  so  as  to  give  utmost  latitude  for  choice 
by  learners.  Projects  for  purposes  of  liberal  education  should 
possess  elements  of  novelty,  appeal  to  creative  powers,  and  should 
enlist  all  that  can  best  be  summarized  as  "amateur  powers." 

[351 


6.  What  would  be  some  of  the'  specific  objectives  of  household 
arts  organized  as  a  means  of  liberal  education  for  girls  from  12  to 
1 6  years  of  age? 

a.  To  help  the  girl  to  see  her  own  home  in  its  most  ideal  light. 
All  over  southern  France,  we  read,  the  war-dislocated  women  will 
take  even  one  room,  a  bed,  a  trunk  and  a  little  stove  and  will 
make  a  nest,  a  home,  a  haven,  a  foyer,  for  frightened,  tired,  and 
sleepy  children,  a  place  to  which  the  lonesome  hard-driven  man 
comes  back  as  to  the  center  of  existence  for  rest,  the  supreme 
recreative  activities,  and  social  uplift.    Only  the  woman,  rich  in 
homemaking  instincts,  customs,  and,  perhaps,  training,  can  make 
the  real  home.     Can  we  not,  by  readings,  pictures,  discussions, 
model  apartments  or  houses,  help  to  see  the  home  as  the  little 
central  power  plant  or  cell  whence  radiates  much  of  the  social 
energy  that  makes  the  world  go  well? 

b.  To  help  the  girl  appreciate  the  facts  and  problems  of  the 
financial  up-keep  of  the  home  through  labor  given  outside. 

c.  To  appreciate  the  fact  that  labor,  devotion  and  management 
wisely  given  in  the  home,  are  in  the  highest  degree  productive, 
even  though  not  appearing  in  the  United  States  Census  as  "gain- 
ful occupations." 

7.  The  spirit  of  the  school  of  liberal  education  is  largely  that 
of  high-grade  play;    the  spirit  of  the  vocational  school  must  be 
that  of  serious  work.    Only  one  worker  in  ten  thousand  can  afford 
to  pick  daisies  as  he  travels  the  roads  of  work.     The  spirit  of 
liberal   education   is   that    of    the   traveler   for  recreation   and 
enlightenment;   the  spirit  of  the  vocational  school  is  that  of  the 
man  who  has  business  at  a  given  destination,  which  destination 
he  must  reach  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.    The  spirit  of  the 
school  of  liberal  education  is  diffusive,  catholic,  rich  in  varied 
human  contacts;    the  spirit  of  the  vocational  school  is  one  of 
concentration    of   effort,    singleness   of   purpose,    and    contacts 
limited  to  those  essential  in  the  economic  process,  that  moving 
toward  fulfilment.    "Work  while  you  work,"  is  the  motto  of  the 
vocational  school;    "play  while  you  play,"  of  the  liberal  school. 

For  interpretations  as  to  what  is  meant  by  "liberalizing" 
education,  we  must  go  to  such  fields  as  literature,  music,  history, 
geography,  plastic  art,  travel,  the  moving  pictures,  current  read- 
ing and  gardening. 

(36] 


T  WED  BELOW 


CENTS 


. 
AN  INITIAL  » 

OVERDUE. 


